Kylie to Margot and Troye: Australia is suddenly having a global ‘cultural moment’

As summer swelters across America and Europe some very familiar faces are everywhere – it looks a lot like Australia is taking over the world.

Australian culture rarely troubles America.

When Neighbours ended, no one in the US was glued to the TV to catch a glimpse of Charlene’s famous denim dungarees. No one at Coachella muses about going to Splendour.

And yet, as the humidity rises in New York City to distinctly Australian levels of stickiness, it’s been accompanied by a distinctly Australian sound.

The country down under is on a global takeover of the northern summer. North America and Europe, at least.

“Australianness is having a cultural moment. It’s suddenly everywhere” a pop culture watcher told news.com.au.

It began in May with the sound of a heartbeat, subtle at first but soon all encompassing.

From the aisles of Walmart to the clubs on 9th Ave: Padam. Padam.

Padam Padam has been Kylie Minogue’s biggest hit for a decade or more.

Kylie Minogue is known in the US. Her sheer staying power has given her name recognition. But asked to name a tune of hers and most Americans fall back on The Loco-Motion, which was way back in 1988.

Not anymore. Padam Padam, her electro ear worm of an anthem, slightly ominous but seriously poppy, has swept through the US like a refreshing breeze from Bondi Beach.

It became Minogue’s first ever top 10 hit on Billboard’s dance charts, she was at festivals and popping up on American Idol.

Perhaps deliberately, it was released just in time for Pride. The exclamation “padam” ricochets raucously in conversation through the gay bars of Greenwich Village. It’s not entirely clear what the direct translation is, but it’s only ever positive.

“How do I look in this?” “Padam,” is the reply, with an approving nod.

Minogue may be back on the radar in the US but in always Kylie-friendly Europe magnify that by many times.

In the UK, Padam Padam went to number 8 on the charts – her first top 10 single in more than a decade, and it topped the downloads chart.

And just like that, she all over the place. The crowd went wild at London’s Capital Summertime Ball in June when she made a surprise appearance off the success of Padam Padam.

People in the crowd were in shock; some were literally crying.

And the crowd in London went wild. Picture: Jonathan Hordle/Shutterstock for Global

‘Australians saving summer’

Then just as the heartbeat of that hit was fading, in swept Perth’s own Troye Sivan to provide the dancefloor anthem for the latter half of summer with Rush. That was fresh from his role in Foxtel’s The Idol, probably this summer’s most controversial drama.

An unashamed banger about – well – banging, the chorus has what sounds like a bunch of football fans chanting about how they’re “addicted to your touch” while Sivan angelically muses about all the boys he’d like to pash.

The video is a big warehouse party with Sivan in leather chaps drinking beer and dancing while everyone gets to know each very well around him. It’s been viewed just shy of five million times in a week.

“The Australians are saving summer this year,” said one YouTube comment on Sivan’s song.

Troye Sivan’s Rush is the song of the latter half of summer. Picture: Tim Hunter.

Rush’s debut hasn’t be harmed by a bit a fuss about body positivity – or lack of it – in the video, given just about everyone at Sivan’s house party is lithe and toned. Hate those too damned pretty parties.

Both artists and songs have that valuable straight/gay crossover appeal.

Move over K-Pop; it’s time for some A-Pop.

You can’t move for Margot Robbie. Picture: Matrix Pictures.

Margot Robbie’s pink power

As a powerful chaser, Margot Robbie is omnipresent in hot pink successfully drumming up Barbie buzz to such dizzying heights everyone forgot a Mission Impossible film is also out.

Then there’s Bluey, the talking dog from Queensland, who is consolidating her domination in living rooms globally.

And, perhaps slightly more esoterically, from TikTok to Instagram there is a trend of performers slipping into the most bogan of Australian twangs for no apparent reason. It’s epitomised by a seeming love of the “naaur” sound, approximating the long Aussie drawl in the word “no”.

Bluey is quietly taking Australia to the world.

Take TonyTalks, an American YouTuber with 140 million views.

A comedian, he dons a wardrobe full of wigs to play a plethora of characters many of who end up sprawled lifeless across his living room floor after losing explosive arguments. But before they expire, accent wise, several seem to go on a tour of Fountain Lakes to drop in on Kath and Kim. Why? Who knows? But it’s fun to hear.

Australia’s ‘cultural moment’

“Australia is suddenly in a unique position where our exports – Kylie Minogue, Bluey and Margot Robbie particularly – are having a moment: they’re at the centre of the pop culture that people are paying attention to,” Associate Professor Lauren Rosewarne, a media and pop culture academic at the University of Melbourne, told news.com.au.

“Australian culture appeals to Americans particularly because it’s ‘exotic’ and far away and it’s different, but not too different – everyone is still speaking the same language, although it sounds a bit different, and bathing in the same cultural references.”

Social media, Prof Rosewarne said, made even some of Australia’s subtle idiosyncrasies, seem closer.

“Something seemingly trivial – the apparent Australian pronunciation of ‘no’ for example – can go viral through bazillions of videos and Australianness suddenly seems everywhere.”

It’s not a Paul Hogan “shrimp on the barbie” moment.

Not necessarily about Australia

But there’s an argument that, perhaps true blue Bluey aside, the Australian invasion of 2023 isn’t really about Australia at all.

This is not Paul Hogan inviting the world to put another shrimp on the barbie in the shadow of the Opera House. There’s no Steve Irwin wrestling with crocs.

Aside from the fact they hold Australian passports, there’s little to link this summer’s antipodean cultural offerings with Australia.

Padam Padam’s video is bathed in Americana, from motels to diners. Sivan’s music video was filmed in Berlin. Margot Robbie’s accent in Barbie is more Malibu than Manly.

Prof Rosewarne said it was likely Australians themselves who were making the cultural connections to Australia.

“It flatters us and makes us feel a little more culturally significant to the world than perhaps we are.”

As one New Yorker told news.com.au about Kylie’s resurgence: “Americans don’t care if she’s from Australia. She could from Antarctica for all they care”.

Originally published as Kylie to Margot and Troye: Australia is suddenly having a global ‘cultural moment’